2013 Mustang Shelby GT500

What’s the craziest thing you can think of doing? I bet you think of sky diving, cliff diving, bear hunting, or partying with Mike Tyson in his glory days. If I had to compare the ridiculously powerful 2013 Ford Shelby GT500 to any of these it would be partying with Tyson when he was knocking competitors out in seconds and then scaring people to death until the wee hours of the morning. Never has someone hit so hard and spoken so softly, until now.

Waiting in my driveway this week was the automotive equivalent of Mike Tyson, a Grabber Blue-compare to Mike Tyson’s high pitched voice-mustang with a 662HP fire breathing Ford SVT 5.8 liter blown motor under the bonnet- compare to Mike Tyson’s right hand.

Driving the GT500 requires more restraint than a southern Baptist at a beer store. Ford has given us a slew of options to control the power but, honestly, the traction control feature is more like an insinuation than a demand. There is simply no way to keep the back tires from busting loose. That’s not a bad thing, I understand, but, sometimes you just want to relax and drive and not be so over-aware. Before you lower my cylinder index, understand I’m not griping. It’s just that much like Tyson the 2013 Shelby will make an ass of itself very easily.

Here’s something you don’t hear every day. Starting at $54,495.00 the GT 500 is cheap when you think about the performance it offers. The guys at Ford had three goals in mind when designing the newest street fighter. They wanted 650-plus horsepower, 200mph, and 600lbft of torque. They hit on all three of them thanks to the blown 5.8 liter wet sump world beater. Take off in first and you won’t need to shift until 60mph. Under hard acceleration you will shift from second to third at about 90mph and third gear last all the way to 130mph. I’m not saying I did this. I’m just saying the car can.
The GT500 is capable of running 11.8 second quarter mile times and I’m guessing with some drag radials on the back could best that effortlessly. Oh by the way, top speed is over 200mph. Not that I would know. Truth be told I am terrified to drive that fast. But, hey, if the revenuers are coming I could test my bravery.

2013 shelby

Helping the 5.8 liter body slam you into the best ever set of Reccaro racing seats is a supercharger set at 14psi. This is up from last year’s 9.0 psi. Helping the bottom stay in place are piston oilers, plasma –transferred wire-arc bore coatings and billet main bearing caps. The 5.8 liter is just a larger bore on the standard 5.4 liter. The Ford engineers say they is no more room to stretch this block. I believe them.

Stopping the GT500 are huge Brembo brakes. The test car has thirteen thousand miles on it and has had three sets of pads littering the trash already.

The interior is noticeably simplistic as it should be for this factory racer. Trust me there is no time for distracted driving when you are behind the wheel.

Which brings me to this question, how much is too much for the street? I know, it’s hard as a gear head to ask this question but, until you drive a production car with over 650HP you can’t possibly conceive the abundance of power.
Somewhere up there Carroll is laughing at me, I know it. This is the true mountain-top Shelby. Born out of his vision, perfected by technology.

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